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Emma Sansom, an fllakma HeFoioe 




AN ADDRESS 




DELIVERED BEFORE THE 






Sixth Annual Convention 

OF THE 

ALABAMA DIVISION, 




; 


United Daughters of the 
Confederacy 






DEMOPOLIS, 






May 14. 1902 

BY 
HON. THOMAS M. OWEN. 

Director of the Department of Archives and History, State of Alabama. 






[From GULF STATES HISTORICAL MAGAZINE, vol. ii, March-May, 1904] 
BIRMINGHAM. ALA. 

1904 












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Emma Sansom, an Alabama Heroine 



AN ADDRESS 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

Sixth Annual Convention 

OF THE 

ALABAMA DIVISION, 

United Daughters of the 
Confederacy 

DEMOPOLIS, 

May 14. 1902 ; . 

BY , /..V, 

HON. THOMAS M; OWEN. 

Director of the Department of Archives and History, State of Alabama. 

[From GULF STATES HISTORICAL MAGAZINE, vol. ii, March-May, 1904] 
BIRMINGHAM. ALA. 

1904 



7 (■ 



(Parson) 



EMMA SANSOM, AN ALABAMA HEROINE.* 
By Thomas M. Owen, Montgomery, Alabama. 

The emotions of personal pleasure I have in taking part in these 
exercises are lost in the suggestions of noble purpose which under- 
lies and gives them meaning. This occasion is one of rare and 
deep significance, and I doubt whether you — all of you 
at least — appreciate in the fullest sense its wide import. We are 
the participants in the formal office of giving and receiving, but 
back of this and looking beyond it is the exalted sentiment and 
resolution, for which your organization stands, that heroism and 
heroic conduct and the memory of them shall not perish from the 
earth. The full meaning of this lesson gained, and we have a value 
in life beyond heroic incidents themselves, or their preservation on 
canvas. 

In the fall of 1861, the armies of the Federals, advancing from 
Tennessee, invaded North Alabama, and excepting a few months, 
continued its occupation until 1865. To their shame be it said, 
that they burned and pillaged the homes of defenseless women 
and children, whose shrieks could oftentimes be heard, as by the 
light of their burning dwellings they were turned, half clad and 
starving, into the snowy midnight. During these years of occu- 
pation, with their horrors of foray and raid, occurred numbers of 
unparalleled incidents of personal bravery. And one of these we 
now commemorate. 

In the latter part of April, 1863, Col. A. D. Streight, with a 
picked command of about two thousand officers and men, left Tus- 
curabia for the interior of Alabama and Georgia for the purpose 
of destroying the railroads in that country. His objective point 
was Eome, Georgia. The expedition had been deliberately planned 
by the Federal commanders, and was considered of much importance 
by them. Advised of the enemy^s movements Gen. Braxton Bragg 

*An address delivered, May 14, 1902, before the Sixth Annual Conven- 
tion of the Alabama Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy, in 
session at Demopolis, Ala., accepting a life size, bust, oil portrait of Emma 
Sansom, presented by the Division to the Department of Archives and 
History of the State, of which Mr. Owen is director — See Montgomery 
Advertiser, May 14, 15 and 18, and June i, 1902. 



directed Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest to check their advance. 
This was what Colonel Streight most dreaded, because he knew 
that Forrest was "at the head of a determined lot of fighters, made 
veterans under his iron hand and absolutely devoted to his service." 

It may be of more than passing interest here to take a glance 
at Forrest through the pages of Dr. Jolin Allan Wyeth, whose 
superb biography of him is more thrilling than the pages of ro- 
mance. He says that "some of the notable features in Forrest's 
method of warfare were : the reckless courage in attack ; the almost 
invariable movement on the flank and rear, so demoralizing to 
an enemy, and especially so when made, as he usually did it, 
under cover, which concealed the strength of the flanking forces; 
the quick dismounting of his men to fight under cover of every 
object which afEorded protection; the use of his artillery, which 
he often carried along with the troops in line and always placed 
close to the enemy; and, finally, the fierce and relentless pursuit 
when his antagonist yielded." 

The raiding party having set out, they pushed boldly through 
the mountains of Lawrence, Blount and Cherokee (now Etowah) 
counties, with the relentless "wizard of the saddle" at their back, 
harrying them, and so interrupting their march that they made 
but slow progress. Within my limits I cannot recount the many 
thrilling engagements which took place, and the numberless daring 
deeds of pursuer and pursued. 

On the morning of the 2d of May, despite Forrest's "persistent 
rush" at Streight's rear guard, the latter had reached Black Creek, 
in the present Etowah county, and had crossed that "crooked, deep 
and sluggish stream, with precipitous clay banks and mud bottom,'* 
on the only safe bridge in this section. The Federal commander 
had placed his hope of escape on the destruction of this bridge ; and 
just as Forrest came dashing up, it was enveloped in the smoke of 
destruction. 

The country arouud was exceedingly wild and rugged, and the 
banks of the creek too steep for passage on horseback. In this ex- 
tremity General Forrest rode up to a modest little farmhouse on 
the highway, not far from the burning bridge, and, seeing a young 
girl standing upon the steps in front of the dwelling, he accosted 
her, and inquired if there was any ford or passage across the creek 
above or below the destroyed bridge, which his men could use. 



This young girl was Emma Sansom, who was born in Social 
Circle, Georgia, in 1847, and who had been brought by her parents 
to Cherokee county in 1852. Her father had died in 1859. She 
had a brother who was a soldier in the Confederate army. She 
and her sister lived alone with their mother in this modest coun- 
try home. 

On this memorable morning in May as she stood in animated 
converse with General Forrest, it was a scene for a painter. The 
young Southern girl, her bright eyes flashing and rosy cheeks 
glowing ; her mother, attracted by the presence of the troops, stand- 
ing in the door gazing over her venerable spectacles ; the great leader 
with eager and impatient look, his face expectant and determined, 
his staff drawn up around him, and his veterans near by in groups, 
some actually nodding in their saddles from sheer exhaustion. 
After a few hurried inquiries. General Forrest asked the young 
girl if she would not mount behind him and show him the ford. 
Turning to her mother she saw that the delicacy of the prudent 
parent was opposed. However, she did not hesitate, but, forming her 
own resolution, jumped on the roots of a fallen tree. General For- 
rest drew his horse near, she sprang behind him, grasping him 
about the waist, and off they dashed. The way was a difficult one, 
even for a practiced rider like General Forrest, but his guide 
held her seat without the slightest evidence of fear. Drawing near 
the ford the quick eye of General Forrest detected the Yankee 
sharpshooters, springing from! tree to tree, and suddenly an angry 
minie whistled by his ear. The density of the undergrowth finally 
compelled them to dismount. The General hitched his horse. The 
girl then started out ahead, saying that the Yankees would not 
fire on her, and they might fire if he went first. To this he objected, 
declaring that he did not wish to screen himself behind her, that 
she was a guide, not a shield. The ford was presently discovered 
and they returned in safety. General Forrest then brought up his 
axemen, cleared out a road, and safely crossed his whole column. 

On the morning of the next day, Colonel Streight surrendered, 
and thus ended one of the most remarkable cavalry pursuits and 
captures known in military annals. And herein lies the value and 
significance of the heroic conduct of Emma Sansom, and which 
makes it enduring and perpetual. "Her presence of mind and 
coolness, under circumstances which would have paralyzed the 



6 

faculties of most women, enabled Forrest to overcome a very 
formidable obstacle in his pursuit of Streight, and gained for him 
at least three hours in time, inestimable in value, since it enabled 
him to overtake and compel Streight's surrender almost within 
sight of Eome."* 

At its session in November the General Assembly of Alabama 
adopted a series of joint resolutions donating her a section of land 
and a gold medal "in consideration of public services rendered by 
her." The lofty and animated preamble deliberately written at 
ilic time by grave legislators will bear recital : 

"A nation's history is not complete which does not record the 
names and deeds of its heroines with those of its heroes, and revo- 
lutions sometimes throw the two in such close proximity that the 
history of the manly bearing of the one is imiperfect unless coupled 
with the more delicate yet no less brilliant achievement of the 
other, and such must ever be the history of the most gallant and 
successful victory of the intrepid Forrest, unless embellished with 
the name and heroic acts of Emma Sansom. 

"Upon discovering the difficulties which embarrassed the ad- 
vance of our brave army in pursuit of a Yankee raid under the 
lead of Colonel Streight, produced by the burning of a bridge 
across Black Creek, near the residence of her mother, in Cherokee 
(now Etowah) county, Emma Sansom, inspired with love of coun- 
try, indignant at Yankee insolence, and flushed with hope inspired 
by the arrival of a pursuing force, exalted herself 'above the fears of 
her nature and the timidity of her sex,' with a maiden's modesty 
and more than woman's courage, tendered her services as a guide, 
and, I in the face of an enemy's fire, and amid the can n on's roar, 
safely conducted our gallant forces by a circuitous route to an easy 
and safe crossing, and left them in eager pursuit of a fleeing foe, 
which resulted in a complete and brilliant victory to our arms 
within the confines of our own State. By her courage, her patriot- 
ism, her devotion to our cause, and by the great public service she 
has rendered, she has secured to herself the admiration, esteem 
and gratitude of our people, and a place in history as the heroine 
of Alabama." t 

*Wyeth's Life of Forrest (1901), p. 212. 

tActs of the General Assembly, 1863, pp. 213-214. 



A certified copy of this resolution was presented to Miss Sansom 
by Hon. Thomas B. Cooper, of Cherokee. Hon. Bnrwell T. Pope, 
of St. Clair, responded for her. The ceremony took place at Tur- 
keytown, in Cherokee county, in the presence of a large concourse 
oJ people. "The lands were surveyed and a portion sold for Con- 
federate scrip, which soon lost all value, while the adverse issue of 
the struggle caused the loss of the medal and the other portion of 
tlie lands."$ In further recognition of the debt of gratitude due 
her, the Legislature of Alabama, in 1899, passed an act in which 
she was donated six hundred and forty acres of land. In 1864 
Miss Sansom married C. B. Johnson, of the Tenth Alabama Eegi- 
ment, C. S. A., in 1879 they removed to Texas, and in 1887 her 
husband died, leaving her with five boys and two girls. On August 
22, 1900, at Calloway, Texas, she passed "to where beyond these 
voices there is peace," leaving a name which will linger long in his- 
tory. 

This heroic incident has been the subject of song and story, and 
it is but calling your attention to facts perfectly familiar to refer to 
the earnest and persistent efforts of Hon. John W. A. Sanford, who 
has honored you with his presence during these exercises, to secure 
a change in the design of the Great Seal of Alabama, so that one 
"commemorative of the heroism of Emma Sansom" might be 
adopted. The details of his proposed design are "the figure of an 
officer on horseback, fully armed, and a young woman seated be- 
hind him with her left hand pointing forward, and the legend 'I 
will show you the way,' " 

Dr. Wyeth has dedicated his "Life" of General Forrest to her as 
a woman worthy of being remembered by her countrymen as long 
as courage is deemed a virtue." And in the text of his immortal 
work he declares that "as long as the fame of Nathan Bedford 
Forrest shall last among men — and it must endure forever — 
coupled with it in artless womanhood and heroic pose will be the 
name of Emma Sansom." § 

Now that I have passed in hurried review the dramatic incidents 
in the life of one woman, whom we now pedestal in hope of per- 
petual memory, I mtist not close until I give you the wider applica- 
tion of the lesson of her life. This portrait stands not only in per- 

tBrewer's Alabama (1872), pp. 248-251. 
§Wjfeth, p. 209. 



8 

petuation of an incident of 1863, but it stands as well for the 
embodiment of the collective aspiration and appreciation of the 
women of Alabama of 1903. 

It is said that woman's heroism is reserved for revolutions. 
Therefore, we find the epic period of our history, the four tragic 
years from 1861 to 1865, filled with examples of the splendid con- 
duct and sublime heroism of the daughters of Alabama, similar to 
the conspicuous instance, the details of which I have recited. Dur- 
ing the period of public and private discussion which preceded the 
precipitation of the conflict, she counselled resistance to the ag- 
gressions of the North. On the fateful eleventh day of January, 
1861, when, amidst the most extraordinary and exciting scenes in 
our political history, the bonds which held Alabama in the Union 
were dissolved by an ordinance of a convention of the sovereign 
people, she was present, "the love songs of yesterday^' swelling into 
political hosannas, in commemoration of the event. Her hands 
fashioned the State flag, which on the same day was flung to the 
breezes as the Star Spangled Banner came down. Her voice whis- 
pered courage when later the flrst tocsin of war sounded. In the 
camps of organization and instruction she was a ministering angel 
to the sick, and an inspiration to the faltering and despondent. 
Daily her prayers ascended in behalf of loved ones at the front and 
for the success of our brave armies. In the hospitals where the 
mangled and bleeding soldiers in groans and agony lay, her gentle 
hands tenderly bound up their gaping wounds, and brushed the 
death damp from the brow of the dying. With husband, or father, 
or son in the army, the management of the household and of the 
farm, with the slaves, devolved on her, and in economy of admin- 
istration right well did she demonstrate her fitness for business 
affairs. Upon her faithful energies largely fell the burden of sup- 
plying clothing for the army, and in its manufacture she toiled 
with sacrificial zeal. In meeting the demands for material she sub- 
jected herself to privations and self-denial which are now incredi- 
ble. The jewels were torn from her neck, rings from her fingers, 
and in many cases she sold the hair of her head, to aid in raising 
supplies for our struggling armies. 

Hardly had the smoke of battle cleared away when she organized 
memorial associations for the care of the soldiers' graves, and inau- 
gurated the beautiful exercises of Memorial Day. And to her zeal. 



fidelity and persistent efforts is principally due the erection of our 
beautiful Confederate monument on Capitol Hill in Montgomery, 
as well as those in other towns of Alabama. 

And after the terrible ordeal by combat had closed, with a 
change of social and domestic conditions so abrupt as to be simply 
appalling, the women of the State, bowing heroically to fate, read- 
justed their lives to the new order. Thousands of them, reared 
in luxury, schooled only injthe arts, learning and accomplishments 
of the higher walks of life, bereft suddenly of all domestic help and 
labor, found themselves the only resource of their families for the 
support and maintenance of home. Did they repine? No. Did 
they falter or hesitate? No. With the same lofty courage with 
which they urged their husbands and sons to battle, and the same 
fortitude and resignation with which they saw them laid away in 
soldiers' graves, they mioved forward in the course of duty. And 
now after the lapse of thirty-five years, how faithfully they have 
struggled and how well they have met all emergencies are known and 
read of the whole world. 

Turning now from the past to a consideration of her condition 
and achievement in the present, a happy outlook greets us. The 
restrictions of an arbitrary body of laws have been practically torn 
away. All of the honorable avocations of business life are open to 
her, and no questions of propriety emharrass her selection. Many 
of theae she has entered, and her success has only shown her emi- 
nent fitness for all. The official positions of postmaster, notary 
public and register in chancery are at her command. The oppor- 
tunities for advanced education, which have been enlarged to her 
through necessary pressure, were never greater. She is admitted to 
our State University and the Alabama Polytechnic Institute; the 
special institutions for her particular instruction have increased 
in number and standard, and the State has provided an "Alabama 
Girls' Industrial School" for particular domestic and polytechnic 
training, as well as training in the branches of polite learning. 
The erroneous opinion which has hitherto obtained that woman is 
without skill in the deliberative assembly and does not possess the 
cohesiveness necessary for organized effort has been safely dispelled, 
and no more healthy and successful organizations exist anywhere 
than the women's clubs of Alabama, the Daughters of the American 
Revolution, the Art Leagues, the Woman's Christian Temperance 



10 

Union, the Colonial Dames, and the United Daughters of the Con- 
federacy. 

And now ladies of the Alabama Division of the United Daugh- 
ters of the Confederacy, to you who are doing so much through 
your organization in drawing into closer bonds of friendship the 
descendants of the soldiers in gray, in stimulating the commemora- 
tion of the heroic deeds of our Southern dead, in rendering 
charity to the needy survivors of our Lost Cause and their families, 
and in obtaining an impartial history of the struggle, that the 
children of our Southland may be taught to reverence the brave 
men of their own families, who laid down their lives in defense of 
the purest principles of patriotism from 1861 to 1865, in the name 
of the State of Alabama, in whose service I am, and to which your 
lives and conduct add such luster, I accept this portrait as a fur- 
ther evidence of your progress in thought and aspiration. The 
grateful appreciation of our people is yours. 

Hung in the State Capitol, surrounded by the likenesses of the 
great ones of our past, this painting will serve as an inspiration, 
a memorial both to your enlightened appreciation, and to the fair 
fame of one who in blissful unconsciousness wrote her name high 
on the roll of the imnwrtals. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
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